38 OiK Bird Friexds. 



brave-hearted, energetic pair, for they set to work 

 with a Avill, and inside of three weeks buih a pillar 

 of sticks ten feet in height, and when these were 

 finally removed they filled the body of an ordinar}^ 

 cart. What a lesson in industry ! 



When they breed early in the season, birds take a 

 much lonscer time to build their nests and work far 

 more leisurely than they can afford to do later on 

 whilst preparing to rear a second brood. I have 

 known a Robin Redbreast take a full fortnight to 

 build a nest during the early days of a cold, backward 

 Spring, and, later on, when the sunshine was warm, 

 food plentiful, and everything aglow with life and 

 energy, finish building, have her eggs all laid, and 

 be sitting in far less time. 



Some of the migratory birds, such as the Wry- 

 neck, set to work searching for a suitable breeding 

 place almost directly upon their arrival on our 

 shores from the sunny South. 



I aui sorry to say that feathered thieves are by 

 no means unknown. The Green AVoodpecker takes 

 great pains to chisel a hole ten to eighteen inches 

 deep in some decaying tree for the reception of her 

 eggs, but hardly ever has a chance of using the 

 same abode twice over, because, long ere she dreams 

 of family affairs the following Spring, a pair of 

 Starlings have iound and promptly taken possession 

 of the old home. Starlings are awful logues in 

 this respect. Only last Spring my brother and I 

 watched a pair of (Jrcen Woodpeckers chisel out 



